Folks: Some time ago there was a discussion of all kinds of high-tech ways to achieve low-drain lighting. Here's what I ended up stumbling on. Bought a florescent reading light, the kind that clip on the book you're reading, powered by 4 aa batteries, at Borders. About $35 bucks as I remember. It's called light voyager, and it's made by phorm. it's bright, it throws a diffuse light, and it bends every which way, and has a sturdy clip that will clip on the reading lights over an airstream bed, and lots of other places. You can also put it in a shirt pocket, and it stands up with the light shining right in front of you. Anyway, I use this pretty exclusively at night to task light whatever I'm doing--mostly reading and working at the computer. I turn the monitor backlight way down, and position the clip light so it shines on the keyboard. Perfect! Here's the trick: I use ni-cad aa batteries. A full charge lasts six-8 hours of light. If I were boondocking, I could power the recharger with an inverter in either the car or the trailer. Or, there's a spot on the light to plug in 5 v dc from a dc-dc converter, so you could run the thing directly off the trailer battery. I think the convenience of being able to take it wherever you go is worth recharging the ni-cads, though. Just one idea, for what it's worth. Personally, I like lots of daylight in the day and just enough task light at night. Since I've turned all my roof vents into skylights, the light voyager is pretty much the only light I use in here. Also, re: a/c, I've found that with all the windows and vents open and the rig in the shade, there's so much ventilation that it's quite liveable. Above 85 or so I supplement it with a fan and a constantly-refilled glass of ice water. It is amazing what drinking lots of water and keeping air moving will do to keep one comfortable (a human evaporative cooler!), even at temps in the mid-90s, so long as the humidity doesn't go much about 50-60%. A year of working in the airstream has convinced me that we're conditioned to think we need a much narrower range of temperature and light to function comfortably than we really do. This is all by choice--I'm not boondocking, have 30 amps of power out here, and can run the AC, the furnace, and every light in the coach simultaneously if I want to. I just am finding I don't need to, and don't want to. Dan '75 Argosy 26 World Headquarters The Profile Company > From: Richard Dais <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2001 22:14:12 -0600 > To: Multiple recipients of VACList <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: [VAC] Re: Argosy Minuet > > Here are some photos of a '77 Minuet: > http://www.can-am-rv.com/usedrv/221a/221a.htm > Rich > > Charlie/Betty Burke wrote: > >> The Minuet is a narrow bodied 6 Meter (20') long coach. I don't know how many >> years they were made yet. We have a 77 here and I have seen a 75 and a 78. >> >> Charlie >> >> To unsubscribe or to change to a daily Digest, please go to >> http://www.airstream.net/vaclist/listoffice.html >> >> If replying back to this message, please delete all the unnecessary original >> text from your reply. >> >> > > > _________________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com > > > > > To unsubscribe or to change to a daily Digest, please go to > http://www.airstream.net/vaclist/listoffice.html > > If replying back to this message, please delete all the unnecessary original > text from your reply. > > > > To unsubscribe or to change to a daily Digest, please go to http://www.airstream.net/vaclist/listoffice.html If replying back to this message, please delete all the unnecessary original text from your reply.
